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Philips HDR312 TiVo 30-Hour Digital Video Recorder

Philips HDR312 TiVo 30-Hour Digital Video Recorder

List Price: $299.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: TiVo is AWESOME! The best!
Review: TiVo is the best electronic device in my room! I love it! It is extremely easy to use and will always record the shows I want it to, without deleting them before I want it to. The remote only has 30 buttons, so you know it's easy to use. TiVo is the same price as it's competitor, and even lets you pay over time instead of all at once. I suggest you get a TiVo and a ReplayTV, try them both for 30 days, then return the one you don't want. I will never go back to the VCR, TiVo is great!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: After the "Gee Whiz" 2
Review: Further info that may be of interest: I have received the replacement for my original unit who's modem failed in less than thirty days. Despite the fact that the unit failed in approx 2 weeks, Philips/Tivo per their stated policy made me ship them the failled unit at my expense! They generously allowed that if I shipped it by UPS Next Day Air (60+ dollars) they would send me the replacement by the same means. They claim that they will ship within two working days of receiving the faulty unit and they did so in my case.

Something I've learned that isn't immediately obvious: Tivo basically provides and updates the programming/operating software while Philips and Sony manufacture units that use this programming. My experience is with the Philips unit and I have no knowlege of the Sony unit(s).

It looks as if Philips has some QA problems and for them to charge for the cost of returning units that fail within the warranty period shows brass one's beyond belief.

PS: For those that acclaim Panasonic for not charging for their programming service, note that the price of the Philips box + lifetime programming costs the same as the Panasonic box with "free" programming.

Without regard to the apparent QA problem with the Philips hardware, the Tivo/Philips combination rates 4.5 stars. If one's unit fails and has to be returned at one's own expense and hassle it is hard to think in terms of stars.

These people richly deserve the fall off in sales they will no doubt experience. Will they get it back after they fix their product and bring their customer service into the 21st century?

Philips, what do you think?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Need to see your fave shows no matter what? Get a TiVo.
Review: I have had it for more than 8 months. No problems. Think I may evenget one for the second TV.

Of course, I can think of features I would like to add: An ULTRA-high-quality mode, ability to assign 'keep forever' to shows BEFORE they are recorded, ...

The complaint from the Replay crowd about having to pay monthly or lifetime [fees] for the TiVo subscription is ridiculous: buying the equivalent Replay box FORCES one to pay for their lifetime subscription - because the box costs [that much] more than the TiVo box.

Get one. Get it now. You will not regret it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: TIVO is the best thing to come down the pipe...
Review: You will love this machine! They do charge a monthly subscription, sogo with the lifetime subscription. Replay charges you the [same] fee upfront (at time of purchase) when you buy their machine, so there is no price difference between the two machines.

My 30 hour machine is working perfectly (since Nov 99).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Super Machine
Review: After you get this gizmo, you'll never use a VCR again for recording stuff on TV. The super-fast forward alone is worth the dough. Incredibly, it records shows I usually watch but forget to set it for. The quality is better than any VCR I ever had, and the ability to start watching from the beginning while the recording is underway is great.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Something everyone leaves out....
Review: 1) Tivo charges for their service. Current prices are 9.95 per month or 199.95 for a lifetime service. Of course the lifetime service is for a limited time only. (I ask you this, Why pay for service when the Panasonic Showstopper with ReplayTV does not charge)

2) Once a show is recorded to move through commercials you must fast forward.(Pansonic Showstopper with ReplayTV has a 30 second quickskip feature, average commercial is 30 seconds)

3) The channel guide is very complicated and very hard to navigate( Remember DOS) Panasonic showstopper with Replay TV's channel guide is very easy to navigate and looks alot like Preview Guide on most cable companies)

I guess what I'm saying is I didn't want to pay another bill so I bought the Panasonic Showstopper with ReplayTV and I love it! I'm buying my family 4 of them for Christmas this year!

Thanks for your time.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Overrated
Review: I purchased a TiVo personal TV receiver from you and received andinstalled it on March 5, 2000.

It is now about 4 months old and gave me a message that it couldn't connect by phone since June 14. So it is running out of programming data.

I found it to be an excellent product so I hardly minded paying $800 for this piece of junk.

A call to TiVo service reveals that the modem is no longer working. So 1 month out of warrantee they want me to pay $100 for a replacement TiVo. Will this be a new one? How many hours on the disc on the TiVo they will send me?

Lets see, 10,000 internal modems at $20, no lets get the cheap ones for $15. So what if they don't last, some dummy will pay $100 to replace it.

They have the nerve to sell an $800 piece of electronic equipment that lasts just past the 3 month warantee. And you sell it too.

I paid $800 for my first Sony Betamax. It worked for 4 years without repair. I have 6 Sony Trinitron TV's now. I will buy another product from Phillips when they sell something that gives value for the money. I expect that will be never.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Product not ready for public consumption
Review: First, let me say that I LOVE the whole concept of being able to control live tv. I was really excited when I picked up my Tivo! Unfortunately, I didn't have a very good experience with it at all.

1) I did not know that there was a monthly fee involved (I guess this serves me right for buying it in retail from a clueless salesperson who didn't know anything about the product).

2) When I did find out about the monthly fee (upon setup of the product), I went ahead and registered for that fee. But I'm concerned about how my credit card & personal information was linked to the Tivo serial number. Isn't Tivo getting into targetted advertising? How will this affect me?

3) After a week, my Tivo died. I had a long run-around with their support people (not to mention the attitudes I had to put up with) that didn't solve the problem.

All in all, I returned it. While I liked the idea of the product and the look of the interface, I got lost in my usage of it and then it up & died.

I'm looking at the ReplayTV product from Panasonic (who has a great reputation in video products and reliability!).

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: After the "Gee Whiz"
Review: Probably worth the price, but not perfect. The modem on my unit failed after 2 weeks. Tivo advises they have to receive the faulty unit before they will replace it. I'll be without for a couple of weeks. I buy on line to avoid hassles. If products have to be returned, the hassle factor is too high. Quality control please!

Bad features: *1. In 'season pass' mode, recording start and stop times can't be adjusted. Programs starting some seconds (up to 40 in my experience) before scheduled time get clipped. *2. In 'manual mode' record time has to be set in 5-minute increments. Ie,you can't set it 1 minute early to catch the first of those early programs: wasteful of capacity. *3. The tuner and/or recorded outputs are disconnected during all programming modes so you can't continue listening to an ongoing program or recording during programing and monitoring of the unit.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: TiVo is the best thing I own
Review: I have spent thousands of dollars on all the usual AV equipment and all I can to say is that TiVo is the best $400 I've ever spent. It far exceeded my expectations, and changed the way I watch TV forever. Like so many others have stated it changes your life (or at least the part that involves TV). Buy it now!


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